The Omnibus

Issue date: 3/17/10 Section: In the Spotlight

In Episode five of "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains" Coach Benjamin Wade leads the tribe in "Dragon Slayer Chi." In both Brazil and Samoa, Coach wakes up every morning to do his daily meditation exercises--alone. This time the whole tribe minus Russell joins to build team unity for the competitions.

"The key is to flex every muscle," said Wade. "It's complete body control; it fuses everything together keeping mind and body on the same page."

While the villains are busy bonding, Russell finds the hidden immunity idol after two days of digging.

"This is my key," he says.

Both tribes gather for the reward challenge of a chocolate feast. The physical challenge involves four contestants in a battle retrieving balls in a dirt pit, then tossing the balls to two teammates on a platform to shoot baskets on the other side where the opposite team members are waiting for the rebound. While Coach is in the pit, he plays smart and tries to avoid rough contact. However, James on the heroes side goes all out, hurts his knee and gets taken away by the medical staff.

The injury of the strongest hero player helps the villains win the reward challenge as the villains have the edge in the pit and retrieve more balls. Jeri sinks the winning basket for her tribe.

During the villain's retreat for the chocolate feast of cupcakes, milk, and saltwater swimming, Russell and Parvati decide to bring Coach into their alliance.

They both think Coach is a joke. "He's a scared little puppy," said Russell. Coach will do whatever you want."

With the possibility of him and Russell able to blindside whomever they wish, Coach sees this as a monumental moment.

"I'm the kind of person that if you give me your loyalty, it's almost impossible for me to betray that trust," said Coach.

Caught in the moment, the modern day Don Quixote requests Russell to knight the Dragon Slayer to seal the alliance.

The tribes gather again for the immunity challenge and see James in a hindering knee brace. Fortunately for this challenge, the tribes need a caller to direct blindfolded teams of two to retrieve 10 puzzle pieces scattered across the playing field. Once the tribes gather the life-size pieces, they all take off their blindfolds and solve the puzzle.

Although the villains fall behind in gathering the puzzle pieces, they are innate at solving puzzles and win this challenge.

The heroes are forced to vote out a fourth member. It is between Tom, a gray-haired older man who is aligned with Colby, or James, a young but crippled competitor due to injury. J.T.'s vote proves to be deciding.

No one knows strategically where the villains are in the pecking order because they have only lost one immunity challenge. Boston Rob and Russell appear safe as two opposing leaders within the tribe. Coach finds himself an outsider even though he pledged himself to Russell in the episode. He will most certainly betray Coach, who is naive to trust Russell. As soon as Boston Rob is voted off, expect Russell to turn and vote off Coach. Tune in Thursday for "Survivor" to find out whether the villains can keep their challenge victory streak alive, or vote out one of their own.

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